International Journal of Linguistics
ISSN 1948-5425
2014, Vol. 6, No. 2
English Loanwords in Colloquial Jordanian Arabic
Mohammad Abedltif Al Btoush (Corresponding author)
Mu’tah University, Department of English Language & Literature
P. O. Box 7, Mu’tah, Al-Karak, Jordan
E-mail: [email protected]
Received: February 8, 2014
doi:10.5296/ijl.v6i2.5086
Accepted: March 3, 2014
Published: March 28, 2014
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ijl.v6i2.5086
Abstract
The paper explores English loanwords and the reasons behind their increase in the daily
speech of sample students chosen randomly at Mu'tah University in Jordan. The sample
students are 25 males and 25 females of the faculties of sciences and humanities. To collect
the data required, a questionnaire consisting of five questions was developed and given to the
respondents. The study shows that students at Mu'tah University use English loanwords in
their speech for reasons such as prestige, habits, study need and modernity. The study also
reports that English loanwords are used more by subjects of the scientific faculties than by
those of the humanities. In addition, females tend to employ English in their daily speech
more often than males do. The main reason behind the respondents’ employment of English
words instead of Arabic ones is that they assume that such English words have no equivalents
in Arabic and these words have become part of their habits.
Keyword: English, Loanwords, Colloquial, Arabic
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1. Introduction
Colloquial Jordanian Arabic, as many other languages and dialects around the world,
incorporates a lot of English loanwords which are used in Jordanian's daily speech among
which is the academic sector whereby university student’s exhibit lots of these loanwords.
Loanwords are always around us even though we sometimes do not realize their presence.
Usually, English loanwords proceed through stages till they acquire frequent usage among
members of the community. At this early stage, a foreign word is used by a small group of
people. In the second stage, this word acquires wider acceptability and usage where it can be
called a borrowed word. In the final stage, when the word becomes popular and used even by
laymen, it can be referred to as a loanword which is almost similar to the frequency of any
native word used by students.
Duane (2008) defines a loanword as" a word taken from one language and used by
another contemporary language, without translation, while maintaining with minimal
modification the meaning it had in the source language". Many people use loanwords without
any idea that they are not originally Arabic words, but it seems that the academic sphere is
attracted more by having loanwords than any other sector of the community. This is
attributed to the fact that, these words have to do with technological advancement and
employment of up-to-date English loanwords by university students.
Students at Mu'tah University have reasons for using English words during their daily speech.
These reasons are related to personal needs that include prestige, showing off, modernity, and
education requirements and so on. It seems that prestige and showing off in particular are
affected by factors such as the students' age, gender and education level. The usage of these
loanwords has been increasing rapidly particularly among this group of the community. Some
loanwords undergo morphological modifications to the extent that they appear as if they were
Arabic words. The current research addresses sample of university students whose areas of
specialization are other than English, in an attempt to measure the most frequent English
loanwords in the course of their daily speech. To my knowledge, this is the first study that
deals with this issue and tackles the reasons behind the increase of these English loanwords in
the speech of sample subjects.
In examining the students' outcome of English loanwords at Mu’tah University, the paper
seeks answers to the following questions:
(1)Why are English loanwords used in Colloquial Jordanian Arabic, in particular among
University students?
(2)Does gender affect the usage of loaning words?
2. Literature Review
Under this heading, with relying on some scholars' point of view, loanwords are those words
which come from a foreign language into another to be used by its native speakers.
Loanwords are defined as words adopted from another language and completely or partially
naturalized. Kemmer (2004) defines loanwords as"words adopted by the speakers of one
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language from a different language (the source language)". They are also defined by
Wikipedia (2006) as “words directly taken into one language from another with little or no
translation".
On the other hand, Al-Qinai (2001:109) who has a more accurate vision about the
understanding of loanwords, describes the process of loaning words as "the process whereby
a particular language incorporates in its vocabulary words from another language which is
technically designated by such terms as 'borrowing', 'loaning' or ' adoption' though the latter is
usually the case". Al-Qinai (2001) also points out that 'loan' and ‘borrowing’ are of course
metaphors, because there is no literal lending process, and also there is no transfer from one
language to another, and no returning words to the source language. He continues to explain
that they simply come to be used by a speech community that speaks different language from
the one they originated in. Al-Qinai (2001) acknowledges that a pure language is a poor one
whereby' purity' means that a language which does not borrow any word or concept from
other languages is an isolated language. Hence, it cannot cope with new innovations and
other's new experiences and discoveries. Therefore, such a language has poor and old
fashioned vocabulary which does not cover up-to-date concepts and any new ideas where a
new concept needs to be expressed by a particular linguistic form. If the language is
incapable of providing the needed suitable word for the new concept, then introducing a
loanword in the native language is a possible solution.
Throughout history, languages have been loaning and borrowing from each other words and
idioms as a matter of cultural exchange. Loaning words among languages is a historical and
universal phenomenon that can be clearly noticed in the Arabic words which were loaned to
other languages. Al-Balbki (1997:5-16) states that "Many of Arabic loanwords in English and
other European languages passed first through Spanish before being taken up by the other
languages. But some of these words from Arabic (a Semitic language) are in turn loanwords,
from Latin, Greek, or a fellow Semitic language (e.g. Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, and
Coptic)".
Bilingual speakers play an important role in expanding the usage of loanwords by bringing
those words as they are into the source language and then monolingual speakers imitate them
until they becomes habitualized. Weinreich (1986:11) says "it occurs new in the utterances of
the bilingual speaker as a result of his personal knowledge of the other tongue. In language,
we find interference phenomena which, having frequently occurred in the speech of
bilinguals, have become habitualized and established to be an inherited loanword" Loaning
words among languages as a linguistic phenomenon is due to language choice, which is an
important issue within the field of sociolinguistics. Language choice can manifest itself as
code switching, where two or more languages are used interchangeably.
People deal differently with those loanwords. Some, who are bilingual in the source language,
know that these words are foreign. However, those who are not bilingual do not know that
these words are foreign. Kemmer (2004) explains that some speakers of the borrowing
language know the source language too, or at least enough of it to utilize language. If they are
bilingual in the source language, which is often the case, they might pronounce the words the
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same or similar to the way they are pronounced in the source language. For example, English
speakers adopted the word 'garage' from French, at first with a pronunciation nearer to the
French pronunciation than is now usually found /garaaj/.
Newman (2002) points out that loanword can be noticeably found in eight domains as the
followings:
-state and economy
-science and technology
-transport, communications and travel
-arts, entertainment and education
- Units of measure, weight, etc.
-food and drink
-the military
- Other (miscellaneous).
Walters (2003) explains that English works as a means of expression of an insular population
with specific political and social behaviors. English has become an international
communication tool in the wake of the economic and scientific expansion of Great Britain,
and later the United States. Walters also points out that English is the language of technology
and scientific research. Similarly, Coury (2001:21) states that "English language is a vital
means of communication for millions of people around the world. During the twentieth
century, numerous technological inventions and developments, such as the telephone, fax,
electronic mail, internet, etc have facilitated communication between people from all walks
of life and the language that is used most is English"
Wikipedia (2006) explains that International English is the concept of the English Language
as a global means of communication in numerous dialects, and movement towards an
international standard for the language. Wikipedia also explains that the reasons behind
loanwords by adding that idiomatic expressions and phrases, sometimes translated
Word-for-word, can be borrowed, usually from a language that has prestige at the time. Often,
a borrowed idiom is used as a euphemism for a less polite term in the original language.
Kailani (1994:39) states that" many English loanwords are adopted in Jordanian Arabic. For
example, in the field of medicine, many English loanwords are used such as microbe, vitamin,
plaster, capsule, aspirin and cholesterol" He adds that " the expressions of foreign trade
have resulted in the adoption of a number of English loanwords in Jordanian Arabic such as
bank, check , million, cash and secretary"
Hazaymeh (2004) points out that "recent cultural contacts with the English –speaking
countries, have a great number of loanwords into Jordanian Arabic, where aspects of English
culture and language items have spread by various means such as education, technology,
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trade, sports, media and communications. Industry and information technology have
increased the spread of English loanwords and expression in Jordan" "Hazaymeh (2004) adds
that certain factors affect code-switching to English in daily conversation in Jordan. Those
factors are education, place of work, age prestige and social value. Al-Saqqa (2000:14) states
“the distinction between two kinds of borrowing in Arabic is that in one kind a word is
Arabicized whereas in the other kind it is non-Arabicized”. She adds “Arabicized words
become like Arabic word in the sense that they undergo many derivational processes of
Arabic" (2000.14). On the other hand, Al-Saqqa explains that non-Arabicized words stick to
one form from which no other word can be derived.
Finally, it is evident that the previous studies on English loanwords make the picture clear
that English nowadays invades many languages including Arabic, because of the heavy flow
of its vocabulary into these languages.
3. Methodology
The current research targeted a random sample including 50 Jordanian students, 25 males and
25 females majoring in different fields of specializations at Mu'tah University. Two variables
are handled regarding conducting such a study: gender and faculty (i, e sciences and
humanities). Five questions consisting of yes-no questions and some multiple choice items
are distributed to the respondents who are asked to decide their choices and to give reasons or
explanation for those choices. The questionnaire is aimed at acquiring the data necessary to
answer the two research questions mentioned earlier. It was reviewed by two EFL experts
who approved its face and content validity to answer the research questions which look for
the reasons behind the increase of English loanwords in Colloquial Jordanian Arabic. The
questionnaire is given to the subjects during the first semester of the academic year 2013.The
frequency of the subjects' responses to the questionnaire are calculated and tabulated.
4. Results and Discussion
4.1 Introduction
In this section the researcher focuses on the results of the questionnaires and responses of the
study subjects and analyzes the information represented in the tables.
4.1.1 Do you use English words in place of some Arabic words in your every day Arabic
Speech?
Eighty eight percent of the subjects reported using English words in place of Arabic words.
However, females tend to use English words slightly more than males do, as the former’s
percent is 46%. The respondents gave examples of English words like 'ok', ' CD' (a compact
disc) 'e-mail', 'internet', 'missed', 'call', 'message', and 'sorry'. Some subjects explained that
they use English words for ideas and objects that have no Arabic equivalents such as ' I
phone' (brand of portable media players) and ' DVD'(digital video disc). On the other hand,
12% of the subjects do not use English words in place of some Arabic words in their every
day speech. They explained that they live in an Arab community whose official language is
Arabic and they feel proud of their language. As such, Arabic is quite enough to
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accommodate what they want to say. With regard to the faculty variable, the percent of
respondents belonging to the scientific faculties outnumbers the percent of those belonging to
the humanities (the percent of the former is 56% and the latter is 32%).This is attributed to
the fact that lots of English words are employed in the teaching process in the scientific
faculties. The following tables summarize the results.
Table 1. Frequency and Percentages of Gender Variable of the First Question
Male Respondents
Female Respondents
Cumulative
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Yes
21
42%
23
46%
44
88%
No
4
8%
2
4%
6
12%
Total
25
50%
25
50%
50
100%
Table 2. Frequency and Percentages of the Faculties of Sciences and Humanities
Scientific Faculties
Faculty of Humanities
Cumulative
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Yes
28
56 %
16
32%
44
88%
No
3
6%
3
6%
6
12%
Total
31
62%
19
38%
50
100%
4. 1.2 Do you feel prestigious or modern when using English words in your Arabic speech?
In answer to the above question, 48% answered 'yes', 34% reported 'no' and 18% reported
‘sometimes’. There is a difference between males' and females' responses in the sense that the
females’ responses outnumber those of the males’. The subjects who chose 'no' considered
using English words in their Arabic speech do nothing for their prestige and most of them
state that they can be prestigious when they speak Arabic. On the other hand, 48% of the
respondents consider that using English words in their Arabic speech is a matter of prestige
because people of high class know more than their mother tongue, especially English which
is considered as the international language and the language of education, technology, science
and media. Concerning the faculty variable, there is also a noticeable difference in the
percentage of subjects' answers in both faculties. That is, respondents of the scientific
faculties tend to employ English words in their speech for showing off and having prestige.
The results are presented in the following tables.
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Table 3. Frequency and Percentages of Gender Variable of the Second Question
Male Respondents
Female Respondents
Cumulative
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent%
Yes
10
20%
14
28%
24
48%
No
8
16%
9
18%
17
34%
Sometimes 7
14%
2
4%
9
18%
Total
50%
25
50%
50
100%
25
Table 4. Frequency and Percentages of the Faculties of sciences and Humanities
Scientific Faculties
Faculty of Humanities
Cumulative
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent%
Yes
13
26%
9
18%
22
44%
No
12
24%
7
14%
19
38%
Sometimes 6
12%
3
6%
9
18%
Total
62%
19
38%
50
100%
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4.1.3 Where do you use English more?
When the subjects were asked "where do use English more?", 6% of the male respondents
chose 'home', 18% chose 'university' and 26 chose ' with friends'. However, female subjects
use English words more at home (28%), but less with friends (4%).The subjects (both males
and females) who chose 'home' (34%) explained that they prefer communicating in English
with the house-maids or servants who do not know more Arabic and that they employ
English words in chatting. Those who chose 'university' (36%) explained that they use
English as a study need. However, 30% use English with friends among which 26% males,
but 4% females, where the former consider employing English words in their daily speech as
part of their habits and to show off. However, according to the faculty variable, subjects in
the scientific faculties use English words more at university and with friends (24%, 30%
respectively) than do their counterparts in the humanities (14%, 6% respectively). The
following tables summarize the results.
Table 5. Frequency and Percentages of Gender Variable of the Third Question
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Male Respondents
Female Respondents
Cumulative
Frequency Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent%
Home
3
6%
14
28%
17
34%
University
9
18%
9
18%
18
36%
With Friends 13
26%
2
4%
15
30%
Total
50%
25
50%
50
100%
25
Table 6 . Frequency and Percentages of the faculties of Sciences and Humanities
Scientific Faculties
Faculty of Humanities
Cumulative
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent%
Home
4
8%
9
18%
13
26%
University
12
24%
7
14%
19
38%
With Friends 15
30%
3
6%
18
36%
Total
62%
19
38%
50
100%
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4.1.4 Do you use English more when speaking to males, females or both?
When the subjects were asked this question, 38% of male subjects reported using English
with males and females, 8% with females and 4% with males. However, 4% of female
subjects use English with males, 20% with females and 26% with both sexes. Using English
by the respondents with both sexes has to do with the situation which requires it. 20% said
females because they are females who use English with other female friends or classmates.
Only, 8% of male subjects use English with females to show off. As far as the faculty
variable is concerned, respondents in the scientific faculties use English more with friends
(36%) than do the subjects in the faculty of humanities (22%). Meanwhile, the percentage is
the least in respondents’ talk at home (4%) in both faculties, but 38% of their talk at
university.
The results are summarized in the in the following tables.
Table 7. Frequency and Percentages of Gender Variable of the Fourth Question
Male Respondents
Frequency
Percent %
Female Respondents
Cumulative
Frequency
Frequency
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Percent %
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Males
2
4%
2
4%
4
8%
Females
4
8%
10
20%
14
28%
Males
&Females
Total
19
38%
13
26%
32
64%
25
50%
25
50%
50
100%
Table 8. Frequency and Percentages of the faculties of Sciences and Humanities
Scientific Faculties
Faculty of Humanities
Cumulative
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent%
Home
1
2%
1
2%
2
4%
University
12
24%
7
14%
19
38%
With Friends 18
36%
11
22%
29
58%
Total
62%
19
38%
50
100%
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4.1.5 Do you think that Arabic is able to accommodate technical terms?
26% of the male and 30% of the female subjects felt that Arabic is unable to accommodate
technical terms and they gave some examples of such terms which have no equivalents in
Arabic like ' I phone, I pad' ( brands of portable media players) and 'DVD' ( digital video disc)
and so on. Nevertheless, 24% and 20% of male and female subjects respectively disagreed
and felt that Arabic is able to accommodate technical terms and gave examples of some terms
that are arabicized like /hatif/ for telephone and /Hasuub/ for computer. Having a look at the
faculty variable on the other hand, it is observed that 24% of the subjects in the scientific
faculties do agree that Arabic is able to accommodate technical terms and 38% disagree. The
percentage of subjects in the faculty of humanities is 20% of respondents who are in
agreement with the idea of accommodation of Arabic with technical terms, but 18% of those
are in disagreement. It can be inferred that scientific faculties are more apt with technical
terms in English than the humanities due to the use of English in the scientific courses.
The results are summarized in the following tables.
Table 9. Frequency and Percentages of Gender Variable of the Fifth Question
Male Respondents
Yes
Female Respondents
Cumulative
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
12
24%
10
20%
22
44%
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No
13
26%
15
30%
28
56%
Total
25
50%
25
50%
50
100%
Table 10. Frequency and Percentages of the faculties of Sciences and Humanities
Scientific Faculties
Faculty of Humanities
Cumulative
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Frequency
Percent %
Yes
12
24%
9
18%
21
42%
No
19
38%
10
20%
29
58%
Total
31
62%
19
38%
50
100%
It is significant to note the difference between the gender and faculty variables in responding
to the five questions above. Females and subjects of the scientific faculties tend to employ
English loanwords in their daily speech more often than males and students of humanities do.
5. Conclusion
The study has reported on the use of English loanwords by students whose majors are not
English at Mu'tah University. The study findings support that English is the language of
science and technology and these findings are also constant with Hazaymeh (2004) who
points out that certain factors such as education, place of work, age, prestige and social value
affect code-switching to English. It is significant to note that English loanwords are employed
more by subjects of the scientific faculties than those of the humanities. This leads us to say
that English is required for the scientific study fields like medicine, programming,
engineering and so on. It is evident that English loanwords are penetrating and increasing
rapidly on the students' daily speech at Mu'tah University. It remains a question for future
study to investigate the usage and penetration of English loan words by other various sectors
of the Jordanian community.
References
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University, 13, 109.
Al-Saqqa, S. (2000). English Loanwords in the Language of Arabic Advertising in Jordan.
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Coury, J. (2001). English as a Lingua Franca in the Brazilian Academic World. Karen's
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Duane,
S.
(2008).
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is
a
loanword?
[Online]
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Loanwords in English
Appendix
List of Some English Loanwords in Colloquial Jordanian Arabic (Students at Mu'tah
University)
Prestige, mobile, keyboard, memory, profile, missed call, download, like, e-mail, face book,
twitter, film, cafeteria, chapter, online, offline, computer, silent, refresh, block, lenses, update,
chat, add, new look, coffee shop, delete, cancel, CD, DVD, I phone, I pad.
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